CD-ROM Troubleshooting

For the most part, troubleshooting an IDE CD-ROM drive is perceived as pretty black and white by a number of people. The reality is that there is a bit more to it than that. I know, you are thinking that I am going to start off on some long-winded explanation of why people perceive things this way and blah, blah, blah. Well I am not; no, I have decided that, in this instance, the best approach is to skip all of the fluff and just get right down to it. ;o)

Before getting started, you will want check for viruses. OK, now try both music and data CDs. Try both storebought software CDs and recently written CDRs. Also consider swapping the devices/cables for another to test whether that corrects the problem. If none of them work, then move on to the steps below.

It’s just hardware, folks

Don’t always assume that the CD-ROM drive is now toast because it will not run your media any longer. Rather than throwing your hands up in disgust with contempt for the machine, try some of these easy-to-understand steps (Windows 98/ME/XP).

1. Try removing the device from the device manager. No, I do not mean disabling it. I want you to actually right click on the CD-ROM drive and select remove. After this has been done, go ahead and try rebooting your PC.
2. Go into your device manager and check your DMA settings (XP, this is done at the controller level). Try setting the device at PIO mode to see if you have better results (if you are using DMA mode, make sure you are using cable that will support ultra-DMA mode).
3. At this point if you are still not having any luck, you need to go ahead and double check to see if the slave/master settings have been altered in anyway. (Normally the device will not show in My Computer if these are set wrong) Try moving the device to another place on the IDE chain. If you can, move the device to the slave position on another IDE controller. (This will help you to determine if the problem stems from the controller level or if the problem is actually with the CD-ROM itself.
4. Now I have heard of some techs having success with this in the past, but have never had the need to test this theory myself. Some IT personnel have reported success with simply resetting the BIOS for that PC. Another option is to check the for BIOS updates and/or CD-ROM firmware updates that address this problem. When checking the device model and version, look at the top or bottom of the CD-ROM for that information.
5. If the device is a CDWriter, try uninstalling any burning programs like Roxio or Nero to see if the problem corrects itself.
6. OK, we have determined that this device (nor any CD-ROM for that matter) will not work under Windows. Try accessing data from either Windows 98 startup floppy or perhaps even a Knoppix CD (if you have access to two drives that is) to see if the CD-ROM allows you to access anything from those two options.

Conclusion

If you got things working on the other IDE controller, but not the one that originally had the problem, then it is a likely bet that IDE controller is bad. Well, you have two choices from here, short of buying another motherboard.

1. Use the other controller.
2. Buy an ATA/133 PCI IDE Card that can be used in any PCI slot.

Good luck!